What do the lyrics of Hotel California mean?

Hotel California is a song by Eagles, a famous American country rock band, with don henley as the lead singer. The single was released on February 22nd, 1977, and included in the band's fifth studio album of the same name, Hotel California.

Chinese lyrics

Driving on a dark desert highway

The cool wind blew through my hair.

A strong smell of marijuana

Emit in the air

Look up into the distance.

I saw a faint light.

My head is getting heavier and heavier.

My vision blurred and I had to stop.

Looking for a place to spend the night

She stood at the door to meet me.

I heard the church bells in the distance.

Say to yourself in your heart

I don't know if this is hell or heaven.

Then she lit a candle.

Show me the way.

There were bursts of voices in the corridor.

Listen to them.

Welcome to California Hotel.

What a beautiful place.

What a lovely face.

Hotels in California have many rooms.

Any time of the year.

You can find a place here.

With a mind twisted like a yarn.

She drives a Mercedes.

With many beautiful and charming young people.

She called them friends.

How happy they are dancing in the yard.

With the sweet sweat of summer

Someone evoked memories in a wild dance.

Some people dance wildly to forget.

So I called my master.

Please give me some wine.

he said

We haven't had that thing here since 1969.

Their words can still be heard in the distance.

Wake you up in the middle of the night

I just heard them say.

Welcome to California Hotel.

What a beautiful place.

What a lovely face.

At the California Hotel, they reveled.

What a wonderful surprise

Give you an excuse to fall.

Eagles (5)

The ceiling is inlaid with mirrors.

Pink champagne and ice cubes are soaked together.

Then she said

We are all prisoners of our own desires.

Then in the master's room

People lit the fire of carnival.

They waved steel knives.

But you can't kill the devil in you.

I only remember.

I ran as fast as I could to the gate.

I must find my way when I come.

Go back to where I came from

Just relax。

The night watchman said

We will naturally be tempted.

You can end it at any time.

But you can never get rid of it.

Interpretation 1: California hotels do exist.

In the small town of Todos Santos in Southern California, there is a hotel with a similar album cover. Many fans think this is what the prototype of Hotel California refers to. The town of Todos Santos is just next to the desert of the Southern California Expressway. Not far from the hotel is a church where the midnight bell will ring. These two elements are consistent with the scene described in the song Hotel California. Besides, this hotel did have a secret sex trade before.

The owner of the hotel also claimed that this is the "California Hotel" in the song, but in the history of the town, the name change of the hotel only happened in the 1980s after the song became popular. In the late 1990s, several newspapers began to publish the true story of "Hotel California", which finally caused the songwriter don henley to formally deny that members of the Eagles had never been here.

Interpretation 2: Drug rehabilitation center

Many hints about drugs in the song are the source of the statement that "California Hotel" was originally a drug rehabilitation center. According to this statement: California Hotel is a voluntary drug rehabilitation center beside the highway in Southern California, and the experience of the Hawks taking drugs in hospital is the source of the lyrics.

At the beginning of the lyrics, Coritas suggested that top-heavy feeling is the characteristic of smoking marijuana. "Lighting a candle" is a common expression of drug abuse, and dancing in the backyard is an uncontrollable epileptic seizure after drug abuse.

This kind of voluntary drug rehabilitation center is mainly for the middle class, between sanatorium and drug rehabilitation center, and promiscuity is a normal phenomenon after the middle class debauchery in the 1970 s. Drug addiction allows you to recover in a certain period of time and leave the drug rehabilitation center, but you can never get rid of the shadow of repeating the same mistakes. This is the portrayal of "you can check out for a while, but you can never leave".

Interpretation 3: Mental Hospital

The strangeness of lyrics may be the source of the statement of mental hospital. The related hints in the lyrics are: there are always auditory hallucinations of distant voices; Heaven and hell refer to some demonic evil human nature and angelic pure unconsciousness among mental patients; In the backyard, the patient danced like a demon; The distortion of the mind is the straight language of mental illness; The prisoner of his own thoughts is also a code word; A psychotic illusion that you want to kill the devil but you can't kill him. Of course, mental illness and drugs are the same. You can feel normal for the time being, but you can't guarantee that you will be normal in the future, and you will never leave that shadow.

The seventies were the time when horror films were popular in the film industry, and this lyric was exactly the story frame. A lonely man on a remote desert road, a beautiful woman holding a candle in front of the door, a mysterious foreman in a bar, a demon dance in the backyard, a demon who wants to kill but can't kill, even if it's over, someone will always remind me behind the scenes that the sequel will end. All these make the lyrics have a ghostly feeling, and in horror movies, mental hospitals are often the main background places.

Interpretation 4: An allusion to the decadent music world

The 1960s, when Hotel California was born, was a period of free creation in American music industry. The popularity of rock music became a symbol of freedom and rebellion in the 1960s, but its grand occasion gradually led to musicians' increasingly erosive attitude towards life. Drug abuse and promiscuity became almost every American rock musician's degenerate road in the 1970s, and money and pleasure became the new image of rock music in the 1970s.

Eagle, two musicians, saw this fact, but there was nothing they could do. Musicians have regarded this addicted life as the normal state of the music industry. Rock musicians are always surrounded by beautiful girls and decadent lives. They always forgive themselves for questioning from the outside world: "Relax, we are easily tempted by nature. The music industry has been unable to kill this money demon. Even if some individuals can temporarily end it, they will never get rid of it. "

Interpretation 5: American society in 1970s

1969 Woodstock Music Festival is the pinnacle of rock and roll. The lyrics of Hotel California, "We haven't had that thing here since 1969", imply that the rock spirit no longer exists after Woodstock. People who think this song symbolizes American society understand it this way: 1969 was the last year of the 1960s, and since then there has been no spirit of freedom, peace and equality. As soon as the United States entered the 1970 s, it encountered the Middle East oil crisis, the failure of the Vietnam War, the Nixon Watergate incident and so on. Overnight, America's mental outlook changed from struggling youth to vulgar and decadent middle age.

Stanley kubrick once made a movie called "Eyes Wide shut", and the audience who saw this movie can find many plots similar to this lyric. It is also the same drug abuse, the same bohemian, the same devil worship complex, and the same shadow that cannot be shaken off. This film is like the commentary of Hotel California, which tells the unbearable state of American society.

Interpretation 6: Los Angeles

"Los Angeles", this is the answer given by the Hawks after countless questions.

In 1960s, Los Angeles metropolitan area adjusted its original industrial structure. It quickly revived after the national economic recession in the 1970s, and finally became one of the global financial, trade and management centers in the 1980s. With the adjustment of economic structure and the influx of a large number of immigrants, the social structure of Los Angeles has also changed, and it has gradually become a concentrated place of high society.

Don henley, a member of the band, explained, "We are a group of young people from middle-class backgrounds in midwestern states.' Hotel California' is our understanding of the upper class in Los Angeles. It can also be seen as a symbol of the United States, which always pursues a luxurious life, not just about California and Beverly Hills. " Beverly Hills is a wealthy area in Los Angeles, where Hollywood movie stars live. )